Back home, Leon Panetta, the defense secretary under Obama from 2011 to 2013 and a man who has served alongside Biden for decades, looked at the inept execution of the withdrawal and commented, “It just struck me that they were crossing their fingers and hoping chaos would not result.” Panetta suggested that Biden just isn’t the same man anymore: “It’s not the Joe Biden that I often saw in the National Security Council raising questions about the planning involved in any decision that the president had to face.”

Three different Senate committees, all led by Democrats, have now promised to launch probes of what went wrong — a highly unusual display, given the longstanding refusal of Democrats on Capitol Hill to investigate their own administrations. New Jersey’s Bob Menendez: “I am disappointed that the Biden administration clearly did not accurately assess the implications of a rapid U.S. withdrawal. We are now witnessing the horrifying results of many years of policy and intelligence failures.”

It is long past time for people to notice who Joe Biden always was, and who he has become in his dotage. He is a hollow man, incapable of managing a picnic, let alone a war. His credibility, always unearned, is shot. His only real skill is his quick tongue, and it has deserted him. Even his onetime virtues — his old-timey patriotism, his faith in institutions, his empathy for others — are easily discarded as the old man reverts to his base instincts when cornered. Biden must hobble through the remainder of his presidency, if only because the alternative is Kamala Harris, his imprudent choice — or threat — of an heir. But nobody should, any longer, pretend that Joe Biden is fit to lead this nation.